Two
gay
British
sailors
spoke
in
Washington
this
week
to
buttress
claims
made
in
a
new
study
that
openly
gay
soldiers
who
served
in
multinational
units
with
American
forces
in
Iraq
did
not
harm
unit
cohesion.
Lt.
Rolf
Kurth
and
Lt.
Cmdr.
Craig
A.
Jones,
both
of
the
British
Royal
Navy,
served
alongside
American
troops
in
Operation
Iraqi
Freedom,
and
shared
their
experiences
in
the
British
armed
services
and
what
military
life
is
like
where
they
were
allowed
to
be
open
about
their
sexual
orientation.
The
U.K.
armed
forces
have
allowed
gays
to
serve
openly
since
2000.
Jones,
34,
of
Brighton,
England,
said
he
became
aware
of
the
policy
change
when
he
was
an
operations
officer
aboard
HMS
Fearless
in
2000.
He
said
the
announcement
released
him
“from
the
wearying
requirement
to
guard
the
detail
of
my
life
for
fear
of
repercussion.
“But
amidst
this
feeling
of
release
I
was
presented
with
the
dilemma
of
how
to
react,”
Jones
said.
“For
me,
secrecy
and
a
lack
of
openness
goes
against
the
grain
of
the
enduring
friendships
we
enjoy
in
service
life,
and
I
had
never
been
comfortable
with
maintaining
economy
of
truth.”
Kurth,
37,
of
London,
who
served
as
an
openly
gay
officer
in
joint
operations
with
U.S.
forces
in
Operation
Iraqi
Freedom,
said
the
policy
change
was
a
“resounding
non-event”
and
added
that
the
integration
of
gay
men
and
lesbians
in
the
U.K.
armed
services
has
been
“a
remarkable
success.”
“I
can’t
help
but
think
that
many
of
our
most
senior
officers
will
look
back
and
wonder
why
so
much
time,
effort
and
legal
expense
was
committed
to
the
case
against
lifting
the
ban,”
Kurth
said.
Both
men
described
the
cantankerous
debates
between
gay
activists
and
senior
military
commanders
prior
to
the
lifting
of
the
ban
in
2000.
“Let
me
say
from
the
outset
that
this
policy
has
been
a
total
success,
implemented
within
stride,
bringing
considerable
benefits
to
our
team,
not
least
by
recruiting
and
retaining
the
highest
quality
of
personnel
available
in
an
increasingly
competitive
employment
market,”
Jones
said.
“This
was
a
policy
born
in
a
storm
and
implemented
by
obligation
rather
than
because
it
had
been
commonly
accepted
in
the
highest
echelons
of
the
U.K.
military.”
The
European
Court
of
Human
Rights
settled
the
matter
of
gays
serving
openly
in
the
U.K.
armed
forces
on
Jan.
12,
2000.
Aaron
Belkin,
director
of
the
Center
for
the
Study
of
Sexual
Minorities
in
the
Military
at
the
University
of
California,
Santa
Barbara,
released
a
study,
“Multinational
military
units
and
homosexual
personnel,”
that
concluded
openly
gay
soldiers
did
not
compromise
unit
cohesion
during
Operation
Iraqi
Freedom.
“We
found
through
academic
investigation
and
analysis
that
the
presence
of
acknowledged
gay
service
members
clearly
has
not
compromised
unit
cohesion
or
operational
effectiveness
among
U.S.
military
personnel,”
Belkin
said.
“In
fact,
all
of
our
evidence
comes
from
situations
where
the
U.S.
military
ordered
American
units
to
serve
with
these
openly
gay
allied
soldiers
and
officers
in
multinational
units,
such
as
those
recently
deployed
in
Operation
Iraqi
Freedom.”
Authored
by
CSSMM’s
assistant
director
Geoffrey
Bateman
and
Sameera
Dalvi
of
the
University
of
Southampton
(U.K.),
the
study
found
through
documented
case
studies,
American
service
members
interacted
and
worked
successfully
with
openly
gay
personnel
from
foreign
militaries.
They
also
note
that
when
conflicts
arose,
they
were
“minor”
and
“resolved
successfully.”
Both
men
noted
that
by
speaking
about
the
policies
of
the
U.K.
armed
services,
neither
was
representing
the
U.K.
government
or
the
Royal
Navy.
And
the
sailors
were
unwilling
to
make
any
comment
or
judgment
regarding
the
“Don’t
Ask,
Don’t
Tell”
policy
of
the
U.S.
military.
But
Jones
said
that
there
were
“no
issues”
between
he
and
his
American
colleagues
and
Kurth
echoed
Jones’
sentiment
calling
his
sexual
orientation
a
“non-event.”
When
Jones
came
out
in
2000,
he
said
“reactions
were
individual,
some
were
immediately
supportive”
and
others
“were
very
unsure
of
how
to
react.”
“Over
the
18
months
that
followed
the
issue
of
my
sexuality
was
ever-present,
not
because
of
any
incident
or
event,
but
because
people
take
time
to
adjust,
it
was
a
process
of
education
at
the
pace
that
each
individual
found
comfortable,”
Jones
said.
Kurth
described
his
“coming
out”
experience
as
a
painful
one.
At
the
time,
he
was
a
senior
naval
officer
in
Hong
Kong
in
1997
where
he
was
second
in
command
of
a
ship.
He
was
discharged
within
24
hours
but
readmitted
to
the
Royal
Navy
three
years
ago.
He
described
his
original
dismissal
as
“history”
noting
that
he
would
not
“want
to
trawl
through
the
gallons
of
spilt
milk.”
“The
important
point
in
this
story
is
that
I
am
now
sitting
before
you
once
gain
in
uniform,”
Kurth
said.
“On
a
personal
note,
since
the
overturn
of
the
ban
on
gay
men
and
women
serving,
I
have
rejoined
the
Navy.
“Although
only
one
man,
when
the
navy
discharged
me,
they
lost
a
man
in
whom
they
had
invested
seven
years
of
expensive
training
from
a
branch
seriously
short
of
people
of
my
seniority.
Think
of
the
significant
contribution
that
all
the
other
gay
men
and
women
who
were
discharged
from
the
armed
forces
could
have
made,
had
they
not
been
discharged.”
